13. Giselle
THIRTEEN
GISELLE
A Whole Lot of Backstory
The entire world was both wibbly and wobbly.
We were in Ben’s car, and Ben was driving us to my purse. I tried to center my thoughts entirely on breathing to a count and getting my bag.
Because I really, really couldn’t think about what had just happened. Not until I had my beta blockers and a chance to calm down. There was far too much adrenaline in my system, not that I could blame myself. After all, I’d just experienced the impossible. A grown man becoming?—
No.
I was not going to think about that.
Not yet.
Just focus on your counts. Breathe in for eight, hold for seven, breathe out for eight.
It was easier than I thought it would be, if only because anything farther than a foot from me was pretty much a kaleidoscope of undiscernible color.
I had no idea how I was still conscious.
I felt far worse than I had in the classroom, and my heart was beating harder and faster than it ever had in my life.
I felt like I was burning up, but also like I was impossibly clammy.
My stomach was lurching, twisting, and doing its own Tae Bo routine without my consent.
I was a mess, and if I didn’t get my medication soon, I’d end up in the hospital again. However, at the same time, I did feel myself ever so slowly stepping away from that ledge. The difference was almost imperceptible, but it was there, my heart having slowed perhaps an iota or so.
I wasn’t na?ve. Swallowing my pills wouldn’t magically solve everything. They needed time to actually kick in, but I was hoping the placebo effect might swing into full power and make it feel like my heart wasn’t about to explode.
“We’re almost there,” Ben said, his voice hoarser than it had been before our date turned into an action movie. I figured transforming from a wolf’s body?—
Wait, no, I wasn’t going to think about that.
“Maybe ten more minutes, give or take.”
Funny, I had no idea how long I’d been in the car with the kidnapper, but it seemed like we were making great time back. It could be that my perception of time was completely off-kilter, but I was pretty sure it was because Ben was seriously speeding.
“Okay,” I said. I wasn’t in the mood for talking, and even if I were, what could I possibly say? I’d been plunged headfirst into a world I hadn’t even known existed, and I really couldn’t dedicate any thought or voice to it until I got my heart rate under control.
Besides, it seemed that Ben also had plenty on his mind. Again, completely understandable. The night hadn’t gone how either of us had expected.
So, we sat in silence. Despite my heart slowly beginning to ease up, it still felt like a truly arduous journey before we pulled over on a small side street.
“I hid it in this alley,” Ben said as he put the car into park. He jumped out of the car and sprinted into the darkness between two buildings.
I had no idea how he could see in the pitch dark, but given everything I had witnessed in that clearing, it was probably the least concerning mystery I had to deal with.
Ben moved impressively fast, and in a blink of an eye, he was practically throwing himself into the driver’s seat and handing me my purse. Relief washed over me, taking some of the edge off, and I dug through my purse for the bottle in question.
I always tried to be prepared for any situation, but thankfully my purse wasn’t overstuffed or cluttered. I found my beta blockers, popped open the child safety top, and knocked back two of the pills without water.
“Impressive,” Ben remarked. He was aiming for levity, but I really had none to give. I was not in a good state, and I was pretty sure he could tell that—not that I was being subtle about it.
“Do you need to go to the hospital?” he asked after several beats.
“No,” I said flatly. “At least not yet. Let’s give time for the medicine to take effect.”
I wondered if we should call the cops, but this was far out of their jurisdiction. I didn’t know how I would actually begin explaining things to them, let alone what they would do if they drove to the clearing and found a man with a smoking eye.
God, I would have to order a new medical bracelet. Damn it, those things were expensive.
“How long do you think that might take?”
Ben was trying to keep his voice steady, but there was still a slight tremble in it, which was a jarring contrast to the awful noises I’d heard him make as a giant animal.
Now that I’d swallowed down my meds and felt relatively safe, all the mental walls I’d put up crumbled to dust. I could see the exact moment Ben had leapt out of the trees, massive teeth flashing as he let out the most threatening, animalistic snarl I’d ever heard.
I knew wolves were massive—I worked with enough kids that I’d probably looked at multiple picture books about every animal native to the continental United States—but Ben’s wolf form was impossibly huge.
On all fours, he was nearly as tall as I was standing, and when he’d reared onto his hind legs, I understood why so many myths had deities taking on lupine forms.
His fur was so similar in color to his hair, but with a white underbelly and chest, and his teeth were as long as my hand. If he or the man who had kidnapped me had wanted to, they easily could have bitten me in half.
It was impossible! Truly impossible. And yet I had seen it with my own two eyes.
Had I had some sort of psychotic break? It was the only thing that made sense.
After all, I was on the brink of a full-blown medical crisis, and even though I’d taken my medication, there was no guarantee that I’d be able to come down on my own.
Maybe my brain was completely fried from the sheer amount of adrenaline from being kidnapped and everything else was it trying to cope with that dangerous reality.
“Giselle?”
Huh?
Oh.
Right, Ben had asked me a question.
“Could you repeat that for me?” I asked hollowly.
“How long do you think it might take before you are sure that you don’t need to go to the hospital?”
That was a good question. I wished I could give him a straight answer.
“An hour, maybe two, as long as I don’t get worse. If any of my symptoms pick up, we should go straight there.”
“That makes sense. Would you like me to take you home?”
Home. It was tempting. There I could kick off my shoes, pull off my wig, and soak in a tub with lavender aromatherapy.
God, my wig! How messed up had it gotten in the fight? It wasn’t one of my human hair units, but it was expensive, and I really didn’t need it to be ruined on top of everything else.
My anger ticked up, which was the exact opposite of what we wanted, but something must have triggered in my brain, because I quickly realized I was about to endanger my health over a bunch of synthetic fibers glued to my head.
A little perspective was in order.
That tiny bit of levity, or maybe it was irony, stopped the crescendo dead in its tracks, and I actually let out a slight chuckle.
“What is it?” Ben asked, and I swore I heard relief beneath his worry.
“Just thinking silly things.” I was happy I sounded much more like I was supposed to.
But then my mind flicked back to his question once again.
As much as I would love to be comfortable in my own space, I wasn’t really in the right state.
“Actually, I don’t want my dad or Simon to see me like this.
They’d probably ask a lot of questions, and I’m really not ready for that. ”
I watched Ben’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard. “I can see how you would want to avoid that.”
Yeah, no kidding.
I knew it was absolutely insane that I wasn’t trying to run away from Ben while screaming at the top of my lungs that he was a monster, but I was in no hurry to leave his presence.
The more I returned to myself, the deeper the curiosity and wonder became.
What exactly had happened? And what exactly was he?
Had that man been telling the truth about Ben killing his brother?
So many questions came to mind, none of which a sane person would ask. Yet I had to know.
And, if I was being honest with myself, some part of me was thrilled that Ben had not only run across an entire city, a suburb, and quite a bit of highway to get to me, but that he turned away from ending the fight to help me.
Maybe I was completely off my rocker, but there was something about the man who had taken me and attacked Ben that made me want to save his life.
Now that I knew what my kidnapper was, I was all too aware that he could have killed me at any moment. Especially when I ran. He could have torn me limb from limb, but he hadn’t. Which, to me, meant something.
So yeah, despite stabbing him in the eye with the only weapon I’d ever heard of working on a werewolf, I had tried to save his life. And I’d succeeded .
“Can we go to your place?” I asked.
He stared at me like I was the one who had suddenly turned into a wild animal.
“Are you sure?” he croaked.
“Yes. Besides, I think you owe me an explanation. A long explanation.”
“I suppose that’s fair.”
Eyes still wide, he turned to face the road and pulled away from the curb. I had no idea how far his house was from the restaurant, but it couldn’t be too far from my house since they had to live in the same school district.
We sat in silence once again—no music, no conversation, just my incrementally slowing heartbeat and our ragged breathing.
Well, we had just had one hell of a first date.
And our night wasn’t even over.
Just as I had thought, it didn’t take us long to get to his house, but I was surprised at how large his home and land were.
I’d imagined a home somewhat like mine: modest front yard, backyard, two floors, and three or four bedrooms. But Ben lived in a relatively new subdivision where the houses were all spaced out with massive yards, pools, and at least three floors as well as outdoor decks.